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Halloween Pumpkins & Banners

Happy Halloween ya’ll! I hope you all got up to no good? It’s a belated post from me, but I wanted to show you some of the crafty things we’ve been making this Halloween to spook-ify our flat.

1) Pumpkin Carving

I headed to Drink, Shop & Do, a fantastic cafe-bar close to King’s Cross, which hosts a range of crafty events from sewing to biscuit-icing. My favourite event is the annual pumpkin carving evenings! For just £8, you get a Halloween cocktail, plus a pumpkin and carving equipment.

Last Halloween, I carved a tiny pumpkin named Bob, however I left poor Bob on the train, so he never made it to Halloween. This year, I was determined to do better, so I carved Bob Junior. Regardless of my intentions, my pumpkins always end up looking happy, instead of scary…

When I got Bob home, Jack had a go at carving too. Needless to say, his was FAR better – check out the full set of teeth cut into the rind. Jack also took the lead on a Halloween feature window.

2) Halloween Chinese Lantern Banner

Jack made a Halloween banner using 1-2m of natural twine, a stem of chinese lanterns, white card, and a pair of scissors. Using slip-knots, he attached the individual lanterns (pulled off the stem) to the twine at regular intervals. He then added some card cut-out ghosts, tied on with wool. The result is a brilliantly bright autumnal banner, complete with tiny Halloween ghouls.

To add to the effect, he also attached some ghouls to straws, and stuck these into the soil of the fern on the window-sill, draping a stem of chinese lanterns on top for a burst of colour.

Somewhat awkwardly, I’ve wandered over to the window numerous times, only to find neighbours standing outside looking in. Other than the pumpkins, which take time if you want to achieve an ambitious design, all the decorations were incredibly quick and simple to make.